Golf course whistleblower arrested on 13th hole

Edward Gartz had just teed off on the 13th hole at Durand Eastman Golf Club when the cops arrived and put him in cuffs.

He couldn't retrieve his ball before being escorted downtown and booked on charges of trespassing and second-degree harassment for refusing to leave the course.

"I had a damn good drive, too," Gartz said.

His arrest Sunday morning was the culmination of what Gartz and club workers described as a series of confrontations between them since the release of a state audit last month that criticized oversight of county golf courses.

It was Gartz's persistent complaints about course conditions and his homework into the county's contract with a private firm that manages the links that moved auditors for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to examine the matter.

Since the audit, Gartz said he has received prank phone calls at his Greece home, had the windows of his daughter's car smashed in his driveway and been assaulted with a doughnut box by a club snack bar clerk. He got a restraining order against the doughnut-wielding clerk.

Over the same period, club workers accused Gartz of stealing a golf cart, nearly running over a club employee with his car and taunting snack bar staff by handing out free doughnuts.

In mid-August, the club informed Gartz by letter that he was no longer welcome at Durand Eastman, where he is a longtime member.

"All I was doing was looking out for the safety of the employees and the business," said the club's assistant manager, Jennifer Turiano, who wrote the letter. "He tries to stir up trouble."

But Gartz, 63, kept showing up, insisting he could not be banned.

"This is all simply harassment, getting back at the whistleblower," Gartz said.

A week before Rochester police handcuffed Gartz on the 13th hole, they confronted him on the ninth during a Junior/Senior Tournament on Aug. 24 after he ignored a request from management on the fifth hole to stop playing and leave.

"I was 150 yards from the green (on the fifth) off the tee," Gartz recalled. "I had one of the best drives of my life and I ended up with an 8. I was so upset."

When the officers met him on the ninth that day, he said, they talked to him so long that he was forced to pick up his ball and was disqualified from the tournament.

Turiano recalled the episode differently. She said police told Gartz to leave and threatened to charge him with trespassing if he returned.

On Sunday at 10:45 a.m. the police did just that on the 13th hole. Turiano summoned them after Gartz refused to leave and allegedly became argumentative and threatening toward her.

"(Gartz) was asked to leave the property," read the police complaint. "(Gartz) then refused to do so and walked at me with his golf club in a threatening manner. (Gartz) was asked again to leave and again came at me which alarmed me and my safety."

Turiano said Gartz was looking for trouble.

"He came back one week after being escorted off the course," Turiano said. "Why would you do that when you know you're not welcome?

"To me that's just saying, 'It doesn't matter what you say, I'm doing what I want,' " she continued. "And he can't do whatever he wants."

Gartz was taken in custody to Monroe County Jail, but posted the $300 bail before ever being locked up. He was arraigned Tuesday in Rochester City Court, where he pleaded not guilty. His next court date is Sept. 9.

In a telephone interview after court, Gartz called the accusation that he threatened Turiano "a lie" and retaliation for his role in the state audit.

Auditors determined the county courses were shorted almost $240,000 in capital improvements in recent years. The county and the private firm that manages the courses, run by longtime pro Jack Tindale, dispute that finding.

In a telephone interview, Tindale said Tuesday he was not aware that Gartz had been banned from Durand Eastman and did not know the circumstances surrounding his arrest.

He said, however, that course managers had the authority to ban disruptive players.

"If somebody is very intimidating, no matter who it is, and an assistant manager feels threatened, by all means then there could be a ban," Tindale said.